Sponsorship of TV programmes is big business, with companies forking out millions to have their brand associated with popular shows. But how much would you have to pay to sponsor your favourite?

THE services of Loose Women will cost you £430k for half-hourly sessions. These ITV1 females will dish the dirt on who's hot and who's not on the showbiz circuit.

Then again, if you want a spot of investigating done you could employ the crime-busting detective duo in new ITV1 series Kill City. Just £600k to see them cleaning up the streets of London.

Or how about getting behind the wheel of a Formula One car and whizzing round the Grand Prix circuit. The price of life in the fast lane? You'll have to speak to the people at Granada Enterprises, who handle programme sponsorship deals which are an increasingly important part of ITV's funding.

Before the regulations were altered in 1989, sponsors were only allowed a static credit at the end of programme titles. There was little room to exploit the opportunities to link programme and product.

Once the rules changed, all programmes were up for grabs apart from news and current affairs. Most products can be advertised, except tobacco, prescription-only drugs and political organisations.

Matching the right product to the right programme, or more importantly, the target audience, is the key. Ratings matter but the age, social status and spending power of viewers is equally important to target.correctly.

When Footballers' Wives returns to ITV on February 11, the glitz and glamour soccer saga will be sponsored by Bliss, a new wine-based ready-to-drink product from Scottish Courage.

There's a link as Bliss is "a sparkling fusion of Californian Chardonnay with fruits and sparkling water" - and one of the main characters in the series is called Chardonnay. More vitally, the last series performed exceptionally well among 18 to 34-year-olds, as well as generating much press and publicity. The ratings may not have reached soap levels, but awareness of the show was high even among people not watching it.

Travel company First Choice sponsoring the current I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here makes sense, although you hope their holidaying clients don't suffer the torment and torture the celebs endure in their jungle camp.

The price is right at £2m, a million less than Nestle paid to sponsor Pop Idol 2. The best bargain recently, though, must have been Travelex's £1.5m deal for the Rugby World Cup last year, as England's success saw much higher ratings than anticipated.

Those seeking Love On A Saturday Night are out of luck - Mars have got there first, paying £900k to have their name associated with ITV1's new dating show fronted by Davina McCall and Jonathan Wilkes.

The link between chocolate bars and romance is visible (sweets for my sweet, that sort of thing) but why Leerdammer, a company that sells cheese, should sponsor a Murder Mystery Drama Package - taking in series like Midsomer Murders - is more mystifying.

A £1.5m drama package sees Standard Life backing the hat-trick of Fat Friends, the second series of William And Mary with Martin Clunes, and the new Caroline Quentin show Life Begins. But it's no surprise that the biggest packages are snagged by soaps, Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

As befits British TV's top-rated show, the Street has the best sponsorship deal. Cadbury recently renewed its sponsorship in a deal worth a cool £10m. That was achieved after three weeks of tough negotiations, with the chocolate company apparently holding out for better terms.

It's still the biggest broadcast sponsorship association in Europe and, according to Graham Duff, managing director of ITV sales, "the most popular with viewers and consumers alike".

Heinz has signed up with Emmerdale, the five-times-a-week soap for £5m. That followed sponsorship by Daz, whose pre-episode plugs featured talking dogs proved more popular than the programme with some people. The dogs were nominated for canine personality of the year in the National Golden Bone Awards and a fan club was formed for them.

In addition to on-air sponsorship, Daz carried over the campaign into ads in TV weeklies and soap magazines to make the brand synonymous with soaps and their stars. Perhaps it's a coincidence that one of Emmerdale's recent arrivals is a young tearaway called Daz.

Occasionally, things go awry. Ericsson's sponsorship of C4 comedy Frasier met with disapproval from viewers irritated at the pre-programme plugs. Controversial gay drama Queer As Folk saw sponsor Becks quit after three weeks, allegedly due to a reallocation of global budgets. Gay viewers got their own back by boycotting the beer.

Viewers seem more willing to put up with sponsorship than endless commercial breaks. An Advertising Standards Authority study of the public perception of advertising revealed a high approval of sponsorship of soaps and of sport, if well done.

Sports sponsorship was particularly approved because it was thought to help sport. Coca Cola currently support ITV1's The Premiership in a £5m deal, while Toyota spent £5.5m to have its name attached to Grand Prix coverage. A key factor was that Formula One attracted a 41 per cent share of young, upmarket male viewers, one of the most elusive TV audiences.

Now there's a new opportunity to sponsor racing coverage - along with Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen, a new series of Stars In Their Eyes Kids, and a Comedy Package taking in Harry Hill's Burps and Tarrant On TV.

And if you have £1.2m to spare, top-rated Heartbeat is looking for a sponsor. A bargain, you might think, for 16 hours of nostalgic, feelgood, drama in picturesque Yorkshire.

Published: 31/01/2004